Arrived at Hot Water Beach (not Whitianga as the map indicates) after about 6 hours in the car. Great scenery on the way so not too bad. AirBnB place is brilliant. A short walk down to the beach and very modern and clean however, this is the first time we have actually shared someone's home with them there. Vivian and Tosis (?) excellent hosts and made us very welcome. We still had time to wander down to the beach for a sun bathe and a test of the hot water. We nearly scalded our feet! Water gets to 64 degrees!
On Thursday we headed out...

So much to do in Coromandel, so little time! The Coast around here has been made famous by a number of movies, including 'Chronlcles of Narnia - Prince Caspian', so we decided to stay close to Hahei and discover a little more about this lovely area. Our morning adventure was to take a one hour coastal cruise in a Zodiac - a semi-rigid inflatable boat - up and down the coast. Unlike our genteel sail on Lake Taupo, there was nothing serene about this trip! With a full load of 12 pax, lively seas and threatening rain, we roared off from Hahei...

We had a few hours drive ahead of us, today, but could not leave Rotorua without a visit to 'The Buried Village', Te Wairoa. The 1886 eruption of Mt Tarowera, about 15 km away, completely destroyed several Maori villages that were closer to the volcano, and buried Te Wairoa in up to two metres of mud. In all, more than 120 people died. In the 1930s, the area was bought by the Smith family and for three generations the family has been excavating and developing a really interesting, informative and sensitive park around the site of the...

@@@@@@@
BACKGROUND
Here’s some of what the Lonely Planet – New Zealand chapter on Coromandel Peninsula has to say about Hahei and Cathedral Cove:
“A legendary Kiwi beach town, little Hahei balloons to bursting in summer but is nearly abandoned otherwise – apart from the bus-loads of tourists doing the obligatory stop-off at Cathedral Cove. It’s a charming spot and a great place to unwind for a few days, especially in the quieter months.
It takes its name from Hei, the eponymous ancestor of the Ngati Hei people, who arrived in the 14th...

Sharon & I signed up for a sunrise kayaking, but we had reservations because the weather was really bad during the night. Plus, we had to get up, pack our suitcases, put them on the bus, get a quick breakfast, and walk to the meeting spot by 5:50 a.m. 8 of us went, the van picked us up and brought us to the beach. The conditions were not bad, so my anxiety eased up. We kayaked about 2 1/2 hours down the shore to Cathedral Cove, out to an island, through an arch, around the island & back to the start point. Luckily I bought a waterproof...

Amazing, at low tide there is hot water flowing up through the sand. If you dig a hole in the sand you can take a hot bath. Some places the sand is so hot it will burn your feet. While there some people from the university were checking it out. One spot they checked was 67 Centigrade, that's 67 degrees Celsius = 152.6 degrees Fahrenheit! Watch your step!

Arrived 26th February
Departed 27th February
First day on the Stray bus today, a nice early pick up from the city at 7.30am! The driver/tour guide/ mechanic/chef was called Daisy! A lovely guy! We headed to the East coast to Hahei beach where we stayed in a little camping park on the beach. A few of the people I met on the bus (Katie, Emma and a few others) and I went on a walk in the afternoon out to Cathedral Cove! It was a beautiful inlet in the rocks with gorgeous white sand and a small waterfall acting a shower in the corner. A bit...

First day on the bus, the first 2 hours are spent picking up people all over Auckland, only to come back right from the first pick up point (my hostel). It appears high season has hit and the bus is absolutely jam packed. Having been given a brief talk about the ridiculous online booking system, its up to Mt Eden, another of the city's volcanoes, for some last views out over Auckland. Then the bus journey really begins. This time the driver is called the Hoff, and obviously the first tune he plays is Baywatch. However all the drivers seem...

I have finally driven on both the wrong side of the road and the car. The coromandel area does not have many bus routes so I decided to rent a car and explore. The transition to driving here was not difficult at all and I had no problems on the road. I started out in Thames but there was not a whole lot going on there so my stay there was short. I started out on highway 25 towards coromandel town and took 309 rd to see the Kauri trees. 309 Rd is a famous gravel road in the area, however it was closed right after the Kuri grove so I could...

Sylvia’s Comments
Having registered for the rally and reading our programme we noticed that ‘happy hour’ was at 4 pm up in the RSL clubhouse. There was a courtesy bus to take those of from the overflow car park up the hill, but we declined the lift and opted to walk up instead. It was not too bad until we got to the last little bit which was quite steep, having been up some big hills in NZ we made it, even though we were a little out of puff. We were all welcomed to the club by the manager who informed us that this RSL has the best view in...